Hawaii gets 3 shots on ESPN in 2007

LAS CRUCES, NM » The Hawaii football team will likely have three national television appearances next season.

The Western Athletic Conference released its schedule yesterday with the Warriors playing Friday games at San Jose State on Oct. 12 and at home against defending WAC champion Boise State on Nov. 23. WAC commissioner Karl Benson said Hawaii's regular-season finale against Washington on Dec. 1 would also be shown on ESPN as well as the league's six Friday and Sunday dates.

Hawaii has three open dates -- Sept. 1, Sept. 22 and Nov. 3 -- on the tentative schedule it released yesterday. The Sept. 22 date is expected to be filled by Charleston Southern.

UH on national TV 3 times in '07

The 2007 schedule for the University of Hawaii football team remains a work in progress. The league's athletic directors finalized the Western Athletic Conference phase of the Warriors' schedule yesterday in Las Cruces, N.M. But there are still two holes to fill on the nonconference side of the ledger.

UH athletic director Herman Frazier promises he will have this matter addressed by Monday. As it stands now, Hawaii will have three games televised by ESPN. Two of those broadcasts will be WAC games played on Fridays. The first is at San Jose State on Oct. 12 and the second is at home vs. Boise State on Nov. 23. The nonconference home game on Dec. 1 with Washington will also be shown on the cable network.

UH athletic director Herman Frazier said the school will announce the remainder of the nonconference schedule on Monday. Hawaii coach June Jones declined comment on the schedule.

"Now that we know the WAC dates, we'll finalize our nonconference matchups and be prepared to release them Monday afternoon," Frazier said in a statement. "I realize that fans have been anxious for the schedule to be released. However, due to many factors, this has been a difficult process and I've been working diligently to put together a nonconference schedule that is in the best interest of the football team and our fans."

The schedule could provide several less-than-ideal situations for the Warriors, including:

» There are no home conference games in September.

» Back-to-back road games at Louisiana Tech and UNLV (Sept. 8 and 15) means spending preparation time traveling back and forth to the mainland, or remaining on the continent and possibly incurring more expenses.

» Playing at San Jose State on a Friday, meaning one less day of preparation for a road game.

» A road game at Nevada in mid-November, meaning the likelihood of poor weather.

» Playing Boise State on Friday after the Nevada game on Saturday, again creating a short week of preparation for a big conference game.

Benson said "this was an extremely hard year," in crafting the schedule as the WAC tried to lay the league slate over the individual schools' nonconference schedules.

Hawaii opens the WAC season on Sept. 8 at Louisiana Tech. UH has home WAC games against Utah State (Oct. 6), New Mexico State (Oct. 27), Fresno State (Nov. 10) and Boise State (Nov. 23).

Along with the Louisiana Tech and San Jose State games, UH will be on the road for Idaho (Sept. 29) and Nevada (Nov. 17).